Not to lean too hard into the memes, but it’s true that you can’t see John Cena. At least, not on the originally-scheduled release date for his upcoming action comedy Freelance, which has become the latest title to be affected by the ongoing domino effect caused by Taylor Swift.
While it hasn’t been confirmed or denied as the reason why Taken director Pierre Morel’s latest caper has been pushed down the calendar, the dots are fairly easy to connect. Since The Eras Tour announced its theatrical debut, no less than five movies have packed up and fled their positions on the calendar.
The first to budge was The Exorcist: Believer, which moved back a week to Oct. 6, when Freelance was intended to arrive. However, Relativity Media have now knocked it down by three whole weeks to the 27th of the month, which makes sense when The Eras Tour will have had its moment in the sun and David Gordon Green’s blockbuster legacy sequel also has plenty of time to make the majority of its money.
Not that anyone’s expecting Freelance to be a runaway freight train at the box office, but the prospect of seeing Cena lean into his winning comedic chops as a former Special Forces operator providing security for Alison Brie’s journalist as she prepares to interview the controversial president of a fictional country has the sort of old school charm on paper that worked wonders for The Lost City.
Cena may not be appearing when he was supposed to, but it’s not as if three weeks is a lifetime, either.
